The Forgotten Hope: An Elric Story
by Indal
Summary: My First Fanfic, based on an anime I know and love. WinryEd pairing implied, chapter total unknown. Please review.


Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist is the property of Square-Enix, all characters and places are also property of Square-Enix, and not me, except for a few that I choose to add myself, currently it's only Indal.  
  
All throughout their childhood, Edward and Alphonse have been friends with the local auto-mail engineer and her granddaughter. They played together and grew up together, though after the incident in which Edward and Alphonse attempted to bring back their mother and then left the village; neither of them was seen very often. Of course, every now and then Edward would go and mess up his auto-mail somehow, and then have to call Winry in to repair it, but that was usually all they saw of him.  
  
Edward had been pretty successful as a State Alchemist, and as such many people didn't want him around, strange people with some extraordinary powers. His brother and he had been damaged severely many times. This time was no exception.  
  
"Get out of my way!" A man yelled as he was running down the road in Central City. Under his arm was a mysterious package, but it must have been pretty important, because several military officials and even a few State Alchemists were hot on his trail. Edward, absorbed in his own thoughts, never even heard the scream and suddenly got plowed into by the stranger, knocking both of them to the ground, and the package to the side.  
  
"What do you think you were doing!?" Edward exclaimed angrily as he stood to his feet and dusted off his shirt. Part of the package had been ripped open and some of the contents had spilled out as the package tumbled. Several of the silver watches that the State Alchemists used were in the middle of the road.  
  
Edward eyed the man suspiciously. He had green hair and blue eyes, and stood much taller than Edward, but who didn't? His features were slightly muscular, like someone who did light work all of his life, and his clothing was very ordinary, nothing special about it.  
  
The most noticeable feature about the man was the fact that he carried an ornate sword behind him, across his lower back, which was very suspicious because not many people carried such old fashioned weaponry around in public. For that matter, not many people carried weaponry around in public at all.  
  
The men chasing him had finally came upon him, and the man was quickly on his feet with his sword in hand, the movement was so fast it almost wasn't noticeable to anyone who wasn't paying close attention. He pointed it towards the men who had been chasing him, holding them at bay.  
  
"Edward! This man is a thief, he broke into the Central City Headquarters and stole several of the silver clocks." One of the Alchemists exclaimed.  
  
"Tch, tell me something I didn't already know. What's the big idea, you guys couldn't handle one man? He doesn't seem to be anything special."  
  
Edward took a few steps towards the green haired man, and the man quickly jumped back, reaching down on the ground to snatch up one of the silver watches. Quickly drawing a transmutation circle on the ground, he slapped his sword down at the ground, and the blade sliced through the stone pavement, and stopped a short ways in. The circle quickly flared up with a bright light and then streaked across the ground. A blade of stone shot up out of the ground at Edward's left leg, but to the man's surprise, quickly shattered as if it had hit something metal.  
  
"Hrmph, that trick may have worked on someone else, but you've picked the wrong man to mess with today. I am Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist."  
  
Edward ran up to him and sent a swift punch to the green haired man's face, but was quickly blocked by the flat end of his sword, a long straight sword, designed for speed instead of strength. Surprised by the speed of this man, Edward smirked to himself, and threw a low kick towards the man's shin from behind.  
  
"Too slow" The man lowered his sword as he jumped the kick, and with his free hand, landed a punch to Edward's jaw with enough force to throw Edward backwards about 5 feet. The others, shocked that Edward had been caught off guard so easily, charged the green haired man, but were easily thrown to the side, but the man was taken by surprise as two of the Alchemists that had stayed behind had drawn circles on the ground, and were already in the middle of a transmutation. The light flared up as before and a complete cage of stone surrounded the man, then the bars filled in to where there was no light passing into the prison of stone.  
  
"Sorry, I had something on my mind, I guess I wasn't really concentrating on the fight." Edward stood up, rubbing his face, and started to walk further down the road, but stopped in his tracks when he heard one of the soldiers gasp. He looked back just in time to see several small glints of light come from inside the stone prison, and then the prison crumbled. The man inside was covered in fine powder and surrounded by the rubble of the cage he had just shattered as he sheathed his sword with a cocky smile.  
  
"You underestimate how sharp my blade is, pitiful fools." He dashed over to the package, picking up all of the watches along the way, and as he picked up the package, he looked at the soldiers and alchemists with a sneer.  
  
"You won't live to see tomorrow if we cross paths once more. The last thing you'll feel before you die is cold steel as it severs your heads from the rest of your pitiful bodies. Remember this name well, no one lives to see Indal twice. I will be your death, Full Metal Alchemist."  
  
Indal darted down an alley and jumped up a water pipe, quickly climbing up to the roof and over out of sight. Most of the soldiers were speechless and the Alchemists didn't have much to say either. Edward sighed inwardly as he decided he would go talk to a friend about this incident, and see what he could pull up.  
  
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Edward sighed inwardly as he approached the Military's Investigation Department. He entered the building, having been there several times before, for the same reason as he was now. He approached the front desk and the receptionist waved him on into the back. Heading down the hallway he heard a familiar voice and stopped just outside the door to listen.  
  
"mumbling Elysia, more mumbling such a genius, yet more mumbling so beautiful...hello? Hello? Argh, the signal must be bad again up at headquarters because I know Roy wouldn't hang up on me."  
  
Edward pokes his head around the door to find exactly who he was looking for. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes was sitting there with a puzzled look on his face, obviously contemplating whether or not to try calling Mustang again. He quickly noticed Edward at the door and went over to his desk.  
  
"Hey Edward, how have you been? Is there anything I can help you with today?" He suddenly pulls a picture out of his front uniform pocket and turns it around, holding it extremely close to Edward's face. "Have you seen Elysia lately? She's gotten so big, hasn't she? I think she takes after her mother, they are both extremely beautiful aren't they? How can you have such an upset look on your face while looking at something so beautiful? She can just make anyone's worries melt away with one glance. She's the greatest daughter in the whole world."  
  
Edward, used to Hughes rambling on and on about Elysia by now, had long since tuned him out waiting for him to finish his ranting. Finally went he stopped talking, Edward snapped his head back up from his dozing, and got to business.  
  
"I need you to look something up for me. A strange man with long green hair broke into the headquarters earlier today and took off with several of the silver watches. He can use alchemy and seems to be a very talented swordsman. His name was an odd one, I can't place the descent from his name, as it's a very unusual name to hear. It was Indal. He caught me off guard and knocked me to the ground after blocking all of my attacks, then broke out of a stone prison made by a few other Alchemists that were there, then took off with all of the watches leaving a threat for all of us. 'No one lives to see Indal twice. I will be your death, Full Metal Alchemist."  
  
"Hmm, very interesting, I'll get right on it, but it might take me a day or two, why don't you go home and get some rest. Anyone who dares threatens one of my friends will not last long enough to carry on their promise. We will take care of this, just be on guard. Perhaps have your brother keep watch or sleep in front of the door so it can't be opened."  
  
"Yeah, thanks Hughes, I'll be sure to do that." With a smile and a salute, Edward made his way out of the headquarters and headed home to his brother, who had been waiting there all day, studying to pass the time.  
  
"Hey Ed, where have you been all day?" Al asked casually as Edward walked in through the door.  
  
"I've been out asking Hughes for a favor."  
  
"Something must have happened for you to have gone to the Investigation Department for a favor. I know you better than that. What went on today?"  
  
"It's nothing serious, a thief bumped into me, we got into a fight, turns out he was a decent alchemist, as well as someone who used a sword...Isn't that odd, a person using a sword instead of a gun in these days?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess it is somewhat odd. Be careful brother, next time you run an errand I'm going with you. We can't die before we're put back in our normal bodies again."  
  
"Yeah, don't worry Al. I'll be more careful, and besides, who could possibly handle both of us at the same time?" Edward had a cocky grin on his face, remembering all the times he and Al had fought side by side, and how many times they came out on top. "One man with a sword couldn't possibly pose a threat to me!"  
  
Shortly after, Edward started feeling tired and decided he would go take a shower and head off to bed, planning on dealing with his problems the next day. He finished with his shower and didn't bother to put his shirt back on. For someone with a metal arm and who was only 16 at the time he had a decent frame. His brother however, didn't have much choice, being a soul bound to a large suit of armor.  
  
Edward lay down in his bed, exhausted from the activities of earlier that day. He let his mind wander around the possibilities of who this Indal character might have been working for. He started humming softly trying to get his mind off of it, and quickly fell into a deep slumber.  
  
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Edward was standing in a large room. The walls were covered in blood and the entire room smelled of death. The atmosphere reeked of hostile intentions. There were bodies on the floor in many places, bodies of men and women clad in the blue uniform of the military. The only thing that set them apart was the silver watches that had fallen out of their pockets somehow, marking them all as State Alchemist.  
  
He moved over to them to inspect their wounds, trying to determine a cause of death. All he could see were slash marks, much deeper than a dagger, and the fact that a lot of their body parts had been severed. This wasn't the work of a dagger; this was the work of a sword. A person who could take out this many state alchemists with a sword had to be a remarkably skilled swordsman.  
  
As he reached for one of the bodies, several images flashed inside of his mind. Flashes of a green haired man, shouting, blood flying everywhere. Transmutation circles being drawn frantically as State Alchemists tried to defend themselves. The light of a transmutation reaction, then a scream as the transmutation never gets finished, dismembered limbs rolling across the floor of various rooms in the building Edward appeared to be in.  
  
The building was like a maze, everywhere Edward went in it reeked of death and decay. The entire experience was stomach wrenching, as Ed had vomited several times. He wandered around floor after floor trying to find an exit to the sickening death filled building, but he couldn't find anything even remotely resembling a window, let alone a door.  
  
He had been walking for several hours, trying his hardest to refrain from being sick, when he started to hear sounds, it almost sounded like fighting. Moving quickly, he ran down the corridors as fast as he could, trying to find where the sounds were coming from, and was quite shocked when he finally made it.  
  
The green haired man was locked in combat with Colonel Mustang. Mustang couldn't seem to keep up with Indal's movements, as the air that exploded was always close to him, but never quite close enough to cause him any injury. It didn't seem though, that the Colonel was missing, more like Indal had something protecting him. It wasn't long before Mustang had to draw a knife to block Indal's strikes, Indal growing faster and faster every passing moment.  
  
Lt. Colonel Hughes was in the back of the room, keeping his cool as usual, trying to provide backup to Mustang as best he could, not being an Alchemist himself. He was tossing his knives at certain intervals keeping Indal's sword away from Mustang whenever he was about to strike. Always aiming at vital points, he made sure to throw just before Indal was going to swing his blade, so he would have to either move to dodge it, or move his sword to block it.  
  
Edward couldn't move during any of this, he was paralyzed in fear, unable to do anything. His entire body had slumped to the ground and he was quivering, unable to move. He feared this man, the man who couldn't be contained in a shell of rock, a man with amazing sword skill and speed, as well as a decent alchemist. He sat there, afraid of what was to come, afraid he was going to die here.  
  
Suddenly, in the midst of the fight, Indal caught one of the daggers and threw it right back at Hughes, who hadn't anticipated it. Into his forehead went the dagger, pinning him to the walls, his eyes quickly rolled up into the back of his head as the warm crimson blood drained out of his forehead and down his face, his entire body relaxed in death.  
  
Mustang, shocked with this turn of events let his guard down for a moment and quickly realized his mistake. Indal's sword moved quickly as the Colonel's eyes widened in fear, before his head was severed from his body. His face still locked in the expression of horror as his head rolled across the floor, his body quickly fell to the ground, nothing more than a lifeless mass at this point.  
  
Tears had started rolling down Edward's face, afraid of what was to happen next. Indal had a dark grin on his face and an even darker look in his eyes. His sword, still covered in blood, was dragging across the ground leaving little sparks in its wake. He moved towards Edward, who was still paralyzed in fear, knowing what was to happen soon. He attempted to prepare himself mentally, but couldn't handle this. He broke down and cried as hard as he could, knowing he was going to die.  
  
Indal raised his sword above his shoulder, ready to slash downward, to finish Ed off. Edward heard a voice in the back of his mind.  
  
"You do have a home!!! You have auntie ...and me!"  
  
Winry's voice echoed in the back of his mind, and suddenly he remembered he had something to live for. He loved her, and he wasn't going to die before she knew it. He rolled backwards dodging the swift sword stroke, and then jumped to his feet. He raised his arm as Indal came back with another slash from the right side. The sword quickly stopped on his arm, not making so much as a scratch. He knocked the sword away from Indal and punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him down to the ground.  
  
Indal coughed and clutched his stomach as spit fell from his mouth onto the floor. He watched as Edward turned and ran, leaving him there, trying to find a way out. His hand quested around for one of the knives that had been thrown at him earlier. Grasping the handle of one, he quickly threw it towards Edward as he was just about to cross the doorway and out of view. The knife struck true, in the back of Edward's head.  
  
Edward's body froze as he felt the cold tip of the knife first touch the back of his head. He had made a big mistake by thinking that Indal couldn't do anything from that position. The blade pushed into his skull and inserted itself in his brain. He lifted his arm up as if reaching for an invisible hope, but nothing reached back. He collapsed forward as a puddle of blood started to form underneath his lifeless body. The last thing he heard was very evil laughter.  
  
"Muwahahahahahahahahaha!!!!"  
  
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End of Chapter 1 


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